Measuring the Impact of Enterprise Systems on Business Objectives

Our team is engaged in a study seeking to develop a holistic framework for measuring the success of ERP systems The rationale for our project is based on (1) the belief that “nobody invests in ERP systems solely for the sake of improving business processes,” but to achieve better business results and (2) our finding that there is a lack of consensus and clarity in the literature about how to define the success of ERP systems. As part of this study, we analyzed an SAP implementation by a major international aircraft engine manufacturing and service organization, and it revealed that ERP systems impact the business objectives of the firm and the balanced scorecard approach can be adapted to build a holistic framework for identifying success measures that link to company’s goals and strategies. This research-in-progress paper reports our findings on balanced scorecard applicability for assessing the business contributions of ERP systems.